Went to a local Volkswagen TDI get together on Friday, and I parked. Talking with everyone, when I noticed something:

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At first, I thought... dammit, I wish I had some "IParkLikeanIdiot.com" stickers. But I didn't, so I decided to take those pics purely for your enjoyment.

Then I looked.

Take a look at how much room was left over to the left of his car. I drive an 86 Golf diesel. A beat up 86 Golf diesel.

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Oh yes, I did.

Even gave him a little room to get in!

And, see, I was legally parked.

I left a note on my car saying: "I have a picture of your license plate and parking 'job.'" Note that I left it on my car. That was intentional. I didn't want to touch this guy's car.

Anyway, so this guy comes out, looks at us, and is all, "does anyone know whose car this is," pointing at my car. We look at each other, and I'm like, "no, no idea." He's a big guy, and he's pissed. Even though we're in a group, why start that much trouble?

He pulls out, and then re-parks correctly.

So, we stick around for 20 minutes, both to wait on someone else that was supposed to come, and to keep an eye on this guy, who was just SITTING there. Watching us. Especially me. (Everyone else had claimed their cars by beeping them with their remotes, so...)

We eventually decide to go in. One guy had to leave, though, so he started to pull out. As he does so, this guy starts to open his door. The friend drove off, and then turned around, and this guy shut his door. As soon as he left though, he opened his door and got out. At this point, another friend that had already gone into the pizza place was watching like a hawk, and went off RUNNING towards the guy, that he saw walk over to my car, and kneel down, and then get back up. The asshat got in his car, and pulled up to the next parking space, next to the second friend's car and another friend's car.

That second friend laid in wait, behind a van, watching him. When he thought he'd get out... he went over to the guy, and said, "I just saw you slash that guy's tire."

At this point, I was there, saw my tire, and the guy got out, and tried to pay me off. Psht, yeah right. I called 911 (I didn't have the local non-emergency number, and I *WAS* on a cell.) As I started talking to them, he started rolling forward. Hahaha, yeah right. I walked over next to him, in a sort of... "you think you're getting away? Think again" mode. I looked over at his front plate, and read the plate numbers off to the dispatcher. At that point, he had an, "aw ****" expression, and gave up. I finished reading everything, and then HE called the cops to say he did it.

Cops came, patted him down, got everyone's info, including my TWO witnesses (and statements from them,) was really friendly, said this guy was a total jerk, they wanted to take him into the police department, and this guy has a court date.

Oh, and some choice quotes:

"I can park however I want!"
"But... I was angry because I couldn't get in my car, so I slashed his tire!"

Some non-violent citizen justice...you make me proud. Sorry you got your tire slashed though. Some may say that you should have simply left it alone. I say that as members of a SOCIETY and a SOCIAL CONTRACT sometimes if falls upon us to teach others the manners and courtesy required to be members of a community. His mother was obviously highly delinquent in this regard.

I took the only parking space available next to a car that was angle parked across two spaces. The note I left on the driver's car said that if it's too good to park like an ordinary car maybe it's too good to drive anywhere. No consequences and the car was gone when I returned.

that would be really great if that was the last parking space, but it looks like there were spaces everywhere. I don't get it either. do you always start fights with people who don't behave the way you would like?

that would be really great if that was the last parking space, but it looks like there were spaces everywhere. I don't get it either. do you always start fights with people who don't behave the way you would like?

bb

My two cents:

If its a crowded parking lot, and someone is taking up two places near the entrance, is just pure selfishness.

However, there are reasons that people may take up two spaces. For example, when at some shops, I park WAY away, and take up two places. Why? With the excuse for parking made to squeeze as many cars into as few square feet as possible, I am unable to get a cart to the side or back of my vehicle to put groceries or other items in. Someone trying to be self-righteous and start stuff is totally rude and uncalled for behavior if someone is parking on an empty side of a parking lot.

In any case, the guy slashing the OP's tires is a criminal act, although some juries might say that it was provoked, similar to a guy trying to goad another person in a bar into starting a fight.

I dunno, you parking like that when there are so many other open spaces around you is basically asking for trouble.

Him parking like that isn't excusable, especially in the middle of a lot, but there were plenty of spots open. Selfish and inconsiderate? Absolutely, but parking the way you did is like driving 65mph in the left lane, and saying, "Hey, I'm driving the speed limit" just to piss off a guy going 75mph you tried to pass you on the right.

If the lot was full, and I were you, I'd probably even park closer to him so he'd have to climb in the passenger's side.

You made a bid deal of it, then he made a huge mistake by making even a bigger deal of it. I think you're both idiots.

Hehe...the jackass deserved it. You didn't pick a fight, you exercised your God given red, white and blue American right to park wherever you wanted to park. And you chose to park right next to that jackass.

At one point in time it would simply be expected that a community (or member of) could and would act in a non-violent way to teach, demonstrate, or enforce social etiquette and mores to another member of a community who was behaving in a manner inviting a correction.

When did a philosophy of "leave well enough alone" become so pervasive?

The follow on actions of the offender clearly demonstrate that he probably needs a great deal of community correction. That was the action of an angry and violent individual who feels himself above social regulation and compacts. From a contract as benign as a demarkated parking to one as serious as destruction of property, this individual feels as if he can do as he pleases, and to hell with everyone else.

If we as communities interacted with each other more, and even (heaven forbid!) corrected each other more in creative and non-violent ways, perhaps our communities would be more civil. Perhaps police would be more free to pursue violent and dangerous crime, rather than constantly defusing squabbles.

And not that parking space incursions equates in any way, but I've always felt the story of Kitty Genovese was horridly illustrative of disconnected communities.

if there are 100 empty spaces and someone wants to use 2, why does that automatically make him a bad person? why should you care if you have somewhere to park? if I'm in a nearly empty theater I put my feet up on the seat in front of me. if there are people sitting there I don't. I think the circumstances change my opinion of who was was being the original ass here. if someone came up to me in an empty theater and told me not to put my feet up I'd tell them to f*%k off.

I also notice a lot of comments about the quality and/or cost of the respective cars. that shouldn't have anything to do with whether it's right or wrong and makes me think this is really just immaturity and being jealous of someone else's car. would you do the same thing if you had the nice car and the bad parking job was a beater?

if someone is parked badly in the last open space I will still squeeze in threre with my nice car and take a picture of the plates. I do it all the time. but if there are open spaces why would I?

would you do the same thing if you had the nice car and the bad parking job was a beater?

No, because I wouldn't want my nice car to be made non-nice, whereas in this case, my beater was already non-nice. In fact, I probably wouldn't have done it had I not had friends that were willing to be witnesses to it. However, I still would have done SOMETHING. Someone on one forum suggested putting a note on his car saying, "Sorry I hit your car!" Just to screw with his mind.

Anyway, my goal here was one of two goals.

1. Completely counteract the guy's intent of protecting his car from door dings, while not vandalizing his car
2. If he tried to do something (which he did), call the cops, escalate it, tighten the screws further, cause him more financial pain and time lost.

If he wanted to protect his car from dings, there's something called... oh... I dunno... THE BACK OF THE PARKING LOT? That's perfectly legal... what he did wasn't.